Sam Berkow always knew he wanted to be involved in music, but when he realized he wasn’t the best musician, he found another way to be part of the industry—acoustics. His passion for music has turned into a career shaping how people experience sound in venues and studios. As a project director for venue at Henderson Engineers, he brings decades of experience in acoustical design to the team. In the 1990s, he even developed Smaart, a tool designed to measure sound during live performances, which is still widely used today.
His contributions to the industry have earned him numerous awards, including the TEC Awards for Technical Excellence, an Acoustical Consulting Hall of Fame Inductions, and the 2022 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Awards for Innovation in Audio Acoustics. But for him, the real achievement is earning the trust of some of the most respected names in music and sound, including jazz icon, Wynton Marsalis, and Mickey Hart, legendary drummer of the Grateful Dead. When he’s not fine-tuning acoustics, he can be found at live music events, editing photos, working on his garden, or being actively involved in several professional organizations, including the Audio Engineering Society and the Acoustical Society of America.
